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Ryan Coogler shook off the naysayers who thought his most recent movie, Sinners, would have an unclear path to profit. After $200 million and counting in global box office receipts, Coogler’s film helped revive in-theater moviegoing after its release on April 18. But he says, despite the success of the movie, he never intended to make a sequel.
In a resurfaced interview with Ebony, Coogler said that he always saw Sinners as a standalone project.
“I’ve been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,” he said.”I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.”
However, now that Coogler’s film has blasted way past projections, the filmmaker may reconsider. After all, before Sinners, most Hollywood observers thought Coogler could only carry a franchise flick – one whose intellectual property was owned by others. His deal with Warner Bros. to own the movie after 25 years now looks like a genius move and a sure path to generational wealth for his (almost) three young children. (Wife Zinzi, who co-produced the movie, is pregnant.)
“I’m not the first filmmaker to get any of these deals,” he told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. “And Warner Bros. is not the first studio to provide these deals to a filmmaker. I think that a lot has been made of my deal in particular. I’m not totally sure why, but I have my guesses, but I’ve been in the industry long enough to know what deals are possible and nothing about this deal is a new thing.”
Coogler said that while he knows why the attention is on him for making the deal happen, he preferred not to say why he thinks the industry was so surprised by it. So we’ll say it for him: nobody thought a Black filmmaker could negotiate such a rich deal. But all of Coogler’s films have been either critically acclaimed or blockbusters or both. Sinners just proved Coogler can do a wholly original film that hits cultural touchpoints and puts butts back in movie theater seats.
“I’ve been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,” he told Ebony. “I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.”
So, coming off a film that has proven to be lucrative for him and a story that audiences embraced might mean a change of mind. Maybe. But he initially said that for him, Sinners is a one-and-done.
“I wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees, and desserts, I wanted all of it there.” He added, “I wanted it to be a holistic and finished thing. That was how I was asked all about it. That was always my intention.”
Sinners is now available on-demand for purchase for $25 on Prime Video and Apple TV+ and can be rented for $20 from the same platforms.
Social media is debating whether Sinners should get a sequel. See the reactions below.